RBNL to highlight radio & TV ops as one entity

Reliance Broadcast Network Ltd (RBNL) is planning to take radio to television by supporting the TV channel Big Magic not only through marketing, but also through the content of its radio shows. Big Magic is a channel that airs no daily soaps but has entertainment to cater to all types of target audience.

RBNL now plans to launch ‘Big Memsaab’, which has been a very popular radio spike of 92.7 Big FM in UP for the last three years, on TV. Now with its fourth year, ‘Big Memsaab’ will be aired on Big Magic. RBNL is also planning to launch two new reality shows on radio, which would be converted into a television show later on. These shows would be running on both radio and television.

Commenting on the development, Anand Chakravarthy, EVP - Marketing RBNL & Business Head, Big Magic, said, “The fundamental strategy is to see both our radio and television channels as one entity. The idea is to convert all listeners into our viewers.”

Marketing
Chakravarthy said, “The most effective way of marketing is radio. In terms of our comedy serial ‘Naadaniyaan’, we ran a contest on our radio channel based on the serial. Through these contests, we keep our viewers and listeners interested to watch the show and participate at the same time. With ‘Big Memsaab’, we have done complete 360 degree marketing with radio, OOH, print, television and digital advertising. Our market spends have been around Rs 40-50 lakh for the entire marketing campaign of ‘Big Memsaab’.”

Channel
Big Magic airs a lot of music and short programmes. It has recently bought the rights for showing the comedy show ‘Tu Tu Main Main’ on their channel.

Chakravarthy added, “The focus of the channel is to air more and more original shows. There are plans to get two reality shows very soon. In the coming two-three months, we plan to launch many more shows.”

Daily soap
Regarding airing daily soaps on the channel, Chakravarthy remarked, “Daily soap is one way to go for getting the audience, but we believe in having all types of target audience rather than just a few. We have shows for kids, teenagers, women and men that make the channel get more audience than what a daily soap can get.”

Entry as a national GEC
On the idea of staging the channel as a nation GEC, Chakravarthy concluded, “We have no plans to make our channel a national GEC. Our target was always to be in the heart of regional language that is UP, MP and Bihar. We will continue to be a regional GEC.”